Gambling, labor disputes and a stolen star player: Looking back at the first-ever World Series in Boston

The first-ever World Series was held in Boston in 1903. It was played in front of a crowd of 16,000 on the campus of Northeastern University. Boston is not in this year's World series. Richard A. Johnson, a curator at the Sports Museum in the city, joined GBH’s Morning Edition hosts Paris Alston and Jeremy Siegel to talk about it.

Jeremy Siegel looks back at the first-ever World Series in Boston. Boston's subway system had just begun expanding its Tremont Street trolley. The Pittsburgh Pirates played the Boston Red Sox.

The Boston Americans were a baseball team that played at the Huntington Avenue grounds. They had stolen the best player from the Boston Nationals and made him player-manager of the team. The team was only three years old at this point.

The Boston Nationals won the first World Series. The event called the Temple Cup was played by National League teams before. Paris Alston and Johnson discuss the history of American sports championship series.

The first World Series took place in Boston. There is no baseball field there now, but there is a statue of Cy Young and a life-sized statue where the mound would have been. The best pictorial record of the event is in the McGreevy collection at the Boston Public Library.

The Pirates players were under contract until October the 15th, but they wanted to get paid their fair share. The players at one point threatened to go on a barnstorming tour of New England and get two weeks extra pay. Over $50,000 was bet on the first game of the World Series in Boston. The gambling stories were also significant in the event. American League President Ban Johnson had forbidden gambling in ballparks in 1903. In the days leading up to the game, the Hotel Vendome inBoston was gambling central. Alston and Johnson are looking back at the history of Boston and the 1903 World series.

Johnson would bet on the Astros in the World Series. Siegel would pick the Phillies. The beauty of sports is that you have to play the games.